WHEN Jarryd Roughead went down with an Achilles injury last weekend most people's thoughts turned to Hawthorn's premiership chances. On the other hand, I was immediately prompted to think of other famous injuries that have made headlines over the years.

1: John Coleman's knee
The great Essendon full-forward was named as spearhead in Australian football's Team of the Century, but his career was cut short by injury before he reached the 100-match milestone. The injury was a dislocated knee suffered in a clash against Fitzroy in round eight of 1954. Surgeons were unable to repair the extensive ligament damage to Coleman's knee and the career of one of the greatest players to pull on a boot was over just a week after he had kicked a career best 14 goals in a match against North Melbourne.

2: Peter Hudson's knee
Peter Hudson entered the 1972 season as the game's highest-profile figure. The Hawthorn champ had kicked a record-equalling 150 goals the previous season, with many people expecting him to exceed that total in the new football year. Hudson started the 1972 campaign in a blaze of glory, kicking eight goals in less than a half against Melbourne, before a marking contest changed the course of football history. Hudson's legs became tangled with those of Demon defender Barry Bourke, with the result being a serious knee injury to the Hawk full-forward. Over the next five years Hudson's knee became the most talked about body part in Australia. He played a single game in 1973, two in 1974 and a full season in 1977, when he again incredibly topped the ton, but all the while the focus was on that knee.

3: Robert DiPierdomenico's punctured lung
The 1989 Grand Final goes down as one of the greatest of all time, not least for the bruising clashes and bravery shown by players from both Hawthorn and Geelong. Of all the heroic stories from the game the most famous belongs to larger-than-life Hawks' wingman Robert DiPierdomenico. Dipper's courage was called on late in the first quarter when he went back with the flight of the ball to attempt a mark in front of a human freight train named Gary Ablett. Dipper stood tall but the contact from Ablett was so severe that the Hawk hero suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung. Incredibly Dipper played on to be one of his side's best, but he collapsed post-game and spent the next eight days in hospital.
 
4: James Hird's foot
After winning the 1996 Brownlow Medal the football world appeared to be the proverbial oyster for brilliant young Bomber James Hird. All that would change in 1997 when he began encountering problems with a troublesome right foot. Over the next three years it appeared that the injury might bring down a premature curtain on a great AFL career. In 1999 Hird played only two matches and the future looked grim, but with persistence and expert medical care he was able to regain full fitness and go on to lead the Bombers to the flag the next year. Essendon supporters may have missed Hird's presence on the field during his absence but they learnt much about the anatomy of the foot, with most able not only to name the navicular bone but be able to tell you exactly where it is located.

5: Ben Cousins' hamstring
The Ben Cousins story is well known and transcends football, but in 2007 it all came to a grinding halt on-field when the star Eagle sensationally tore his hamstring in the first week of the finals. Cousins had made a sensational return to football in round 16 when he gathered 38 possessions in a match-winning performance against the Swans. His West Coast was facing Port Adelaide in the first week of the finals when Cousins' comeback was literally hamstrung. He sensationally tore his hamstring early in the game and would never play for the Eagles again.

6: Daniel Chick's finger
Daniel Chick was a hard-at-it footballer who gave his all for Hawthorn and West Coast over a 252-match career. During the latter part of his time with the Hawks he was being severely hampered by his ring finger, which was continually dislocating during games. Chick was given the option of having the joints fused together or having his finger cut off after the injury showed no signs of healing, but as fusing the joints would have made it difficult to mark and pass the football he decided instead to have the finger chopped between the knuckle and the first joint. It was a radical move aimed at prolonging his football career and one that Chick is reminded of every day when he bends over to tie his  shoelaces.

7: Brian Gleeson's knee
Brain Gleeson is the only Brownlow medallist in the history of the game to have never played a match after winning the award. The Saints ruckman had much to look forward to in 1958; not only had he won the game's highest individual honour the previous year, he had also been named captain for the first time. Playing in a practice match he injured his knee in what would today require a full reconstruction. In 1958 medical science was such that the damaged ligaments were unable to be repaired and sadly, at just 22, Gleeson's career was over.

8: Darren Millane's thumb
Football's raging bull Darren Millane was the perfect mix of talent, power and courage. That courage was called on to enable Millane to play through the 1990 final series with a broken right thumb. He had sustained the injury in the lead up to the final series, but nothing was going to stop Millane from being part Collingwood's push to win the premiership. Playing on pain-killers and sheer courage, he played every final including the Grand Final to be part of the Pies' first flag side since 1958.

9: Nathan Brown's leg
The struggling Tigers moved heaven and earth to lure Nathan Brown from the Western Bulldogs and the move seemed to be paying off in Brown's second season at Punt Road. Brown had kicked 32 goals in nine games coming into the clash with Melbourne at the Telstra Dome and was sitting second on the AFL goalkicking list. Late in the match Brown was attempting a left-foot kick when Melbourne defender Matthew Whelan fell across the lower part of his right leg. The resulting footage was near impossible to watch, prompting many to call for stricter guidelines for television broadcasters when showing images of injured players.

10: Aaron Sandilands' toe

It may only be a couple of inches long but the most important digit in football today must surely be the troublesome toe that belongs to giant Fremantle ruckman Aaron Sandilands. Sandilands has a condition known as turf toe which sees ligament damage in a toe manifest itself as painful red swelling. Until the swelling goes down Sandilands can't play and Fremantle finds itself without its number-one weapon.

This list does not include injuries intentionally inflicted by other players nor does it include the game's most serious injury suffered by Neil Sachse of Footscray. Sachse became a quadriplegic as a result of an on-field collision and to include that here would be to trivialise the most tragic moment in AFL/VFL history.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs